Third of Americans Fear Russian Cyberattacks on US Electric Grid - Poll

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - A third of adults in the United States said they are afraid Russia may conduct cyberattacks on the US electric grid, a new poll by Protect Our Power and Survey Monkey revealed on Friday.

On Thursday, the US Department of Homeland Security said in a security alert that Russian cyber actors threaten the US energy sector network and other critical infrastructure sectors. Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations of malign cyber activity against the United States.

Thirty-three percent of the poll’s respondents answered in the affirmative when asked whether the recent news regarding Russia’s information cyber warfare is a precursor to Moscow initiating cyberattacks on the US electric grid.

Nineteen percent said they do not believe Russia intends to attack the US electric grid, while 48 percent said they do not know, according to the poll results.

"Our poll shows that the American people are increasingly aware of and concerned about the vulnerabilities of our electrical systems, and that’s why they’re asking the government to act more aggressively in addressing this urgent threat," Protect Our Power Executive Director Jim Cunningham said.

Moreover, 62 percent of the poll's respondents said they believe the US electric grid is vulnerable to a cyber or physical attack and an even higher percentage, 66 percent, said they are unprepared for an extended power outage.

Hello,
!

We are committed to protecting your personal information and we have updated our Privacy Policy to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a new EU regulation that went into effect on May 25, 2018.

Please review our Privacy Policy. It contains details about the types of data we collect, how we use it, and your data protection rights.

Since you already shared your personal data with us when you created your personal account, to continue using it, please check the box below:

I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of creating a personal account on this site, in compliance with the Privacy Policy.

If you do not want us to continue processing your data, please click here to delete your account.

promotes the use of narcotic / psychotropic substances, provides information on their production and use;

contains links to viruses and malicious software;

is part of an organized action involving large volumes of comments with identical or similar content ("flash mob");

“floods” the discussion thread with a large number of incoherent or irrelevant messages;

violates etiquette, exhibiting any form of aggressive, humiliating or abusive behavior ("trolling");

doesn’t follow standard rules of the English language, for example, is typed fully or mostly in capital letters or isn’t broken down into sentences.

The administration has the right to block a user’s access to the page or delete a user’s account without notice if the user is in violation of these rules or if behavior indicating said violation is detected.